In case you don’t know, I go to the gym and exercise pretty frequently. Almost daily in fact, which is why a gym is such a commitment for me. And earlier this week, I informed LA Fitness that I wanted to no longer be a part of their gym.
I went to 2 specific locations frequently: South Plainfield (right near my apartment) and Parsippany (halfway between work & home). There was a 2-part process to my decision to leave.
The Catalyst
The whole reason behind me considering the jump to a new gym is because of my move. My new house isn’t in close proximity to a LA Fitness club.
However, I tried the approach of working out early (5 am early, woof) and driving to the Parsippany location or the Paramus location really close to work. The latter cost me an extra $1.50 in tolls.
But you don’t care all that much about my MacGyverism to get to the gym. You want the juice about LA Fitness and what teed me off enough to decide to call it a day.
The Dirty Truth
I’m going to let the text stand alone without images here because I want to ensure it gets read. But I’ll have bullet points to help reading the reasons behind my departure easier.
- Grimy: The dirty truth subhead is literal folks. Both South Plainfield and Parsippany had disgusting locker rooms from paper towels always littering the floors to actual dirt/grime/mildew/yucks all over the showers and the curtains.
- Sauna: One of the main reasons I chose LA Fitness is because of the sauna and I’ll admit that it worked most of the time with pleasure. There would be spells (I’d say 1-2x a month at South Plainfield) where the sauna would not function because of whatever electrical issue the sauna was having. The users are more to blame, but stricter rule reinforcement & making the rocks inaccessible to the public would do wonders.
- Jacuzzi: See Sauna above minus the users being more to blame. South Plainfield has that jacuzzi under wraps like every other month.
- Crippled Machines: I understand that machines break down once in a while. I think there’s at least one machine at each location that I deem as crippled since they’ve been broken for at least 3 months… as of my last visit, South Plainfield has a leg curl machine that’s been broken for close to a year. Just throw it in the damn trash.
- Lack of Supplies: You make certain assumptions about a gym when joining. Having no soap and/or no hot water is not okay (I’m talking to you Parsippany) and shows true mismanagement. This was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
LA Fitness, you were a good gym… but my needs are no longer being met. I spend too much time at the gym to be patient with these gross (literally and figuratively) oversights. I am trying out new gyms currently and will continue going to LA Fitness until my membership expires.
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